Though professing Brahmanism, amongst them is a more general amount of demon, spirit, fetish, totem, shaman, and hero worship than is observed amongst the other races of the Peninsula. The Mahratta Kunbi race chiefly worship the deified heroes Kandoba, Etoba, and Hanuman. The idols of Kandoba and Hanuman are to be seen in every village south to the Tumbudra, and blood sacrifices of sheep and fowls are largely made. Hanuman is the chief of the village gods, and is invariably smeared over with red lead, which is also applied to every bit of stone or wood that has been erected into a fetish god.
The temple of Kandoba near Poona is famous. Panderpur, on the left bank of the Kistna river, is a celebrated place of pilgrimage, and there is a famous temple and image of Ganesh at Morgaum ; and a tree, said to be 300 years old, is an object of great veneration, in the belief that, in the 18th century, the leaves had the virtue of turning into gold on being taken to Benares. The superstitions of the low Mahrattas are said to have a strong resemblance to those of the Bhils. Yet they have all outwardly assimilated to the Brahmanical teachings, and have amongst them a Brahmanical body, who are considered to apply Brahmanical tenets as to caste more stringently than any other Brahmans of India; the bulk of the Mahratta nation, however, are only of the Sudra caste. Their chief objects of worship are certain incar nations or images of deified mortals, known as Etoba and Kandoba at Panderpur, Jejuri, and Malligaon, but the village deities receive a large part of their attention in times of sickness or peril.
There has seemed amongst them, also, a more extensive polytheism than prevails in any other part of India, and an introduction even of the Semitic and Christian names. Between Ellichpur and Amraoti, the Pariah converts are ordinarily called Krishn,—not Krishna, but a variation of the word Christian ; all along the tract southwards to Udghir, the Bawa Adam near Panderpur is largely worshipped, and the Jabral Abral, wor shipped in East Berar, is evidently the Gabriel or Jibrail of the Semitic races. Even amongst the Kunbi race, who profess Brahmanism, the Hindu deities Siva and Vishnu are little heard of, and the Editor put up for two days in the temple of the village of Assaye, to which the villagers came at the usual periods to worship Hanuman and the serpent, and the officiating priest to wash and ornament its lingam. An officer of Sindia's artillery, who had fallen in the battle of Assaye, had been buried beneath a neighbouring tree, and there the villagers continue to worship his spirit. Sickness is usually attributed by them to
the influence of a malignant spirit, and all through the Mabratta-speaking districts the practice of the Bolwan prevails, viz. the ceremony of pro pitiating the Bhuta or spirits who have entered a village, inducing them to leave the village, and conducting them across the borders with music and a procession. The conductors often move to the next village, and thereby cause intense fear and anger, as the morbific influence is supposed to be conveyed to it. Ai, mother, equivalent to the southern Ammun, is largely worshipped in the form of a rude stone smeared with red lead, and her temples are to be seen in lone places, passes, and defiles. The Mahrattas have public recitations of histories or stories of the gods, called Katha. The Gondana or Gondala or Gondhal of the Mahrattas is a tumultuous festival held in honour of Devi.
They have the Pat, the Murat, or the Mohatar forms of marriage of widows, a custom of which it is hard to judge between the advantage of the women, who get a husband or part share in one, and the misery of the men, who often get more wives than they can manage. Women are, in truth, often deliberately sold by their parents. Mahratta men are faithful, kind husbands, kind to their children and dependents. Mahratta women have the full control of the households, and are tho friends as well as the helpmates of their husbands. 3lahratta Sudras, being widely spread, differ greatly in appearance, in language, and in caste observances, but all intermarry and eat together. It is the custom with all the Mahratta and Canarese Brahmans to take their wives to their homes a few months before they grow up.
Owing to the powerful position so long occupied by them in India, they imposed their language and some of their customs on about twice their own number of menial and helot races, such as the Dher and Mhang, who speak Mahrati in Nag pur, but Hindi iu the Nerbadda valley. Mahratta linguistic influence did not penetrate to the north much beyond the Nagpur plain, consisting of the lower valleys of the Wardha and Wainganga. The northern line of demarcation may be drawn along the southern crest of the Satpura range, for though a few Mahrattas are found on the table-land, there are probably more Hindi speakers below the ghats in the Nagpur plain, and the almost universal language of the three Satpura districts, Seoni, Chiudwara, and Bctul, is Hindi. The establish ment of a Mahratta government at Nagpur drew many of the nation into that part of Gondwana, and made their language general for a considerable distance round the capital.